Alternative Pride Festival creates a new kind of inclusivity

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It’s time to dust off your rainbow flags: Pride Week is nearly upon us. Hundreds of thousands of participants took to the streets for last year’s official parade—and with events scheduled to celebrate everything from spirituality and homosexuality, being a queer senior, and different facets of lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and gay culture, the official festival allows different groups to honour their identity.

Cultural organizer Matt Troy, however, believes that Pride can be improved. Recognizing that the city’s mainstream events are based on celebrating a specific trait, Troy created another option. With the Alternative Pride Festival—a multi-day grassroots music and arts celebration—Troy aims to offer an inclusivity that Vancouver’s existing festivities lack.

“We’re very different to typical Pride events,” Troy tells the Straightat the Vancouver Art and Leisure office. “We offer parties for everyone—not just for individual categories. Pride isn’t simply for lesbians, or gay people, or another particular group. Aren’t we past that? It’s 2016. Pride is for everybody.

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About The Author

Rick has lived in Vancouver since 1991 - first off Commercial Drive and now in Renfrew Heights - with his husband of 34 years, Dan. He has a background in travel, an interest in LGBT history, and a fondness for all that is geek.
As co-publisher of Davie Village Post, he looks for stories and news which are relevant to LGBT Vancouver, and invites you to submit your items and ideas.